you can rule City out, unless they want to spend 45/49m of their transfer limitation imposed by UEFA on one player who isnt english or home grown.
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I've only seen Kroos play as a a more advanced midfielder so I'm not sure how well he'll do if he's playing in a midfield two. Of course there's no doubt that I'll be happy with any of them.
Kroos is not a superior passer to Fabregas. That list is very, very short and Kroos is not on it.
When it comes to through balls I don't think there's a passer over the past half decade that touches Fabregas. Kroos can spray it, but his passing repertoire isn't as good.
Since we've dropped our pursuit of Cavani (thank god) I could see this being Woodwards "superstar" signing he wants and I hope I am wrong. Fabregas is a great player in his day but I really don't think he'd slot into our team or the philosophy LVG goes with.
Everything he can do offensively Mata can do l. Everything he can do from a deeper role whoever else comes in will most likely do better If we're talking Kroos, Vidal, Strootman values (I'm talking a deep lying playmaker that can tackle n bite too). It's little wonder he didn't really fit in at Barca, obviously it was the romance of winning the WC with Spain that did it. If we hadn't have signed Mata I'd be all over this. But we have a younger potentially better player in the squad already.
He'd sell shirts and be a bit of a headache in terms of starting 11, provided we sign a,top deep lying playmaker. Which we will.
Everything he can do offensively Mata can do l. Everything he can do from a deeper role whoever else comes in will most likely do better If we're talking Kroos, Vidal, Strootman values (I'm talking a deep lying playmaker that can tackle n bite too). It's little wonder he didn't really fit in at Barca, obviously it was the romance of winning the WC with Spain that did it. If we hadn't have signed Mata I'd be all over this. But we have a younger potentially better player in the squad already.
He'd sell shirts and be a bit of a headache in terms of starting 11, provided we sign a,top deep lying playmaker. Which we will.
You'd hope that Van Gaal would have a say in it in that case no?
Yep you would indeed.
Fabregas is homegrown.
For some reason, despite Arsenal not particuarly needing him, you could still see him going back, or at least wanting to back to Arsenal over most other situations should the chance arise.
What? When was he at the City academy
Let arsenal buy him and put in a bid for Ramsey
What? He's a central midfielder, born and bred. He can pass, tackle, shoot, score and do practically everything a central midfielder in this league requires. Mata is a #10, Fabregas isn't, so your comparison is strange one to say the least. He is that deep-lying playmaker, he would need an all-action midfielder alongside him, though. Hypothetically, Vidal would be the perfect partner.
Atleast Enrique has been appointed. Hopefully he has a word with Cesc before the World Cup to say if he is in his plans or not.
UEFA defines locally-trained or 'homegrown' players as those who, regardless of their nationality, have been trained by their club or by another club in the same national association for at least three years between the age of 15 and 21.
He was registered to a club affiliated to the fa for 36 months prior to his 21st birthday therefore classed as homegrown for any English club
just like Rafael is homegrown and Fabio even though he has moved is still classed as homegrown for cardiff
Do not want him at all. Common sense should dictate that with Xavi decling Cesc would be the natural successor but the truth is he hasn't played in a CM role for years and doesn't have the discipline or athleticism to do it. Not surprised Barca are getting rid of him he constantly takes up the same positions as Messi/Iniesta and their fans think he slows down the passing tempo of the side. Players dropping off the front is one of our biggest problem as well with too many players wanting the ball in between the lines and no one penetrating in behind so we end up going in circles. He'd end up taking up the same spaces as Rooney/Kagawa/Mata and we'd be a mess.
Shocked people think he is just what we need. Vidal/Gundogan or Pogba is the style of player we need.
Shocked people think he is just what we need. Vidal/Gundogan or Pogba is the style of player we need.
Yet somehow he dominated the PL as a teenager in a midfield 2. Odd, that. He hasn't forgotten how to play in midfield, he just doesn't suit Barca's style.
Basically my thoughts on him as well, I guess people are thinking he could adapt and sit ala Scholes of 07'ish, which is true he could.. but its a gamble considering hes not played a similar role for a good, long... while now, I'd also like us to get an orthodox midfielder as those you mentioned if we're going for a 30+ mill midfielder, someone who could translate his current role a bit easier into our side and slightly less a gamble, but.. yea.
Amazing how people forgot that he was up there with the best midfielders in the country, including Scholes, for his last 3 years at Arsenal, at a very young age still.
Just out of interest, as well as watching United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Roma and Juve who else do you watch?
He wasn't really playing as an orthodox midfielder in his last years at Arsenal though, its his initial starting birth when he first broke into the team 10 odd years ago that people will be looking for him to replicate.
Dominated? What year did he dominate? I can't recall him every winning anything at Arsenal. Odd, that.
Maybe the year he won the Golden Boy award, for the best young player in Europe, made the UEFA team of the year and played a key role in Arsenal making the CL final that year - in 2005/6. Age 18/19. In a midfield 2. He dominated the PL throughout his entire career here, it's not his fault Arsene dismantled the team he should have been playing with.
Oh, and he did win something at Arsenal, given that he was in the team that beat us in the FA cup final in 2005, where he matched up with Keane and Scholes as an 18 year old and came out victorious.
He definitely wasn't used as an attacking midfielder though. He was mainly a central midfielder and exactly the type we need, a creative one. Obviously we need a more defensive one next to him but that goes without saying, every midfield partnership whether it be a 2 man midfield or 3 man midfield needs to have a more defensive player next to a more adventurous, creative one who dictates the game. Fabregas won't solve all of our problems but a large part of them he would. Just like if we only signed a defensive one like Carvalho it wouldn't fix everything. The biggest impact on our team would be someone like Vidal because of how good he is all around, but I highly doubt that'll happen. Fabregas would be a terrific signing though, and he's actually realistic because Barca are willing to let him go for the right price. More suited to us and more realistic then Kroos probably as well.
To be fair to him, it's not too hard to follow multiple leagues. Obviously you don't catch all of the other games like with United but games from the bundesliga, serie a and La liga pretty much line up one after the other in the morning on weekends, so there's not much else to do at 10 am on a saturday or sunday. Plenty of people follow other teams loads.
Anderson also won the golden boy award. And in the year Arsenal made the champions league final they scraped to 4th place in their worst domestic season since Wenger took over so he hardly dominated anything.
In the FA cup final he lined up in a midfield 3 with Gilberto and Veira playing the highest of the 3, not a midfield 2. United also completely bossed the game and never deserved to lose, so much so that Wenger had admitted that United were a superior side and vowed to never again set his team up in such a negative way again, which he's been largely criticised for since.
Why even bother. Does Anderson unfairly winning the award negate it's prestige for ever? Fabregas earned it. Fabregas was an incredible midfielder that year, and every year after in the PL. Do you have any way to diminish his achievement in getting in the UEFA ToTY as a 19 year old? And in 2005 they still won, and we clearly deserved to lose since we, y'know, lost.
Fabregas was a fantastic PL player in every year he was here, and he's not forgotten how to play football or been seriously injured, so he'd be able to take the league by storm again.
What are you trying to prove here? Fabregas is a central midfielder, and was a bloody good one at Arsenal, putting in a huge amount of exceptional performances and demonstrating some of the most innovative passing in Europe.
This fascination with specialising all players and pigeon-holing them into one fixed position is getting on my tits. The guy is a central midfielder that has been terribly misunderstood at Barcelona. He'd come over here and immediately return to his position as the best midfielder in the league, irrespective of who he moved to.
Thank you! I thought I had been teleported to some alternate universe where Fabregas wasn't arguably the best teenage CM to ever have played in the PL!
Yup. I don't remember seeing a central midfielder as good as Fabregas was at the age of 18 anywhere over the last decade. He was outrageously advanced for his age.
If he's so good why do the majority of Barca fans want rid of him? If he's really one of the top CM's in world football why isn't he seen as an obvious choice to succeed Xavi? The idea that he's "misunderstood" at Barca a club who know more about his strengths and qualities than anywhere in the world since he was raised there is farcical. Spend 10mins on a Barca forum and see how many of them would care if he's sold.
He was raised since the age of 16 in the PL, he's a PL footballer. Direct, incisive, assisting and goalscoring. He's not a tippy-tappy-ticky-tacky player. He suits the PL to a tee. He does not suit Barca, despite being first produced there.
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Uefa TOTY is some kind of benchmark now? Fifa team of the year included Ramos out of position and Casillas was named in TOTY for about 5 years running even though Madrid got knocked out in the last 16 regularly. Fabregas has always primarily been an attacking midfielder and it would be at least worth considering why Barca are selling this player if he's everything you say he is.
It's hard to understand why any United fan in his/her right mind would be against us signing Fabregas. He's the exact brand and type of midfielder we've craved since Scholes started declining and eventually retired. If he's available it's a complete no brainer.
Not even going to bother!Because his game is built for the Premier League, not the patient tiki-taka stuff we're accustomed to seeing with Barca. At a different club then there isn't a midfielder at any other club I'd rate ahead of him, and I thought that before he moved from Arsenal.
He's every bit a Premier League footballer, and it'd be best for his career to move back and show the rest of Europe just how good he is.
He was raised at Barca from age 10, they had more of a role in making him the player he is today than Arsenal.
There's hardly any question he was a quality mid in his time in England, but he's been off the pace now, playing advanced in one role or another over the past few years, he'll have to refind himself as that all round midfielder type, he has the talent to, nobody is denying it, but somehow I find it more a gamble, when considering Mata used to play wide for Valencia years back, when Silva played the no.10, yet now looks incapeable of rediscovering his best form for us when wide after years of playing a new position.
I personally don't see it as such a nailed on prospect that he'd just slip in like a glove to the scholes role, for similar reasons why Barca currently arent considering him the man to replace Xavi.
The English league made him the player he is, not Barca. He took to it like duck to water.
Is this a genuine question? Because if it is I tend to watch any game that's on and I have a passing interest in.
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